Diya Chitale and Manush Shah will become the first-ever Indian table tennis players to compete at the WTT Finals. The mixed doubles duo qualified for the prestigious 2025 season-ender in Hong Kong after a series of consistent performances.
The mixed doubles pair of Diya Chitale and Manush Shah will be India's representatives at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Finals 2025, which will start from Wednesday at the Hong Kong Coliseum. The WTT Finals 2025 will mark the end of the global WTT series, which will feature top-ranked players from the year. Only the 16 best men's and women's singles players, along with the top eight mixed doubles pairs, will get to participate in the season-ender, as per Olympics.com.
Historic Qualification for Indian Duo
Diya and Manush, the current national-level champions in their respective singles' categories, made history as a duo and became the first-ever Indian table tennis players to qualify for the prestigious WTT Finals. The duo delivered consistent performances in mixed doubles, including their historic mixed doubles silver medal at the WTT Star Contender Brazil, helped them reach the WTT Finals.
Tournament Draw and Format
The mixed doubles event will witness eight pairs divided into two groups of four. Diya-Manush are a part of Group 1 alongside Chinese pairs, Lin Shidong and Kuai Man, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha and Hong Kong's Huang Zhenting and Du Kaiqin. The world number one pair of Ling Shidong and Kuai Man are the top seeds, while Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, the current Olympic champions, are third-seeded.
*WTT Finals 2025 mixed doubles groups Group 1 -Lin Shidong and Kuai Man (CHN) -Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha (CHN) -Huang Zhenting and Du Kaiqin (HKG) -Diya Chitale and Manush Shah (IND) Group 2 -Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin (KOR) -Matsushima Teru, Harimoto Miwa (JPN) -Hugo Calderano and Bruna Takahashi (BRA) -Alvaro Robles and Xiao Yaoqian (ESP)
South Korea's Paris 2024 mixed doubles bronze medalists Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin are in group two and are second-seeds. Each pair face the other one once, and the top two teams from each group will move to the semifinals.
The mixed doubles event will be making its debut during this edition of WTT Finals. (ANI)
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